Bad Experience with Sony Customer Care

I just have bad experience with Sony Customer Care. This is the e-mail I wrote to them and hope that potential Sony buyers can be benefitted from my experience:

"I ordered a laptop last week. I actually expressed my concern to the
sale representative that the price is attractive but I suspected Sony
will give some more discounts. She (actually she is very nice, and not
all sale representatives are as nice as her) assured me that Sony
gives price guarantee for 30 days. It really gave me peace of mind to
make the order.

However, this week, I found that Sony is giving away FREE Base Station
worth $200. So, I hope to get the same free item as it is promised by
Sony. I even saw online blogs where people sharing their experience
getting free Base Station after chatting with sale representative and
I was very hopeful. Unfortunately, my experience is not as pleasant as
them. I chatted a few times, non can help me (as in the blog in
notebookreview.com, who is just lucky to get a nice representative to
chat with). All referring to a Customer Care number. Well, it is fine
for me to call, but the only problem is that the phone can never get
through after endless trying, and endless wasting of my time. I also
try e-mailing, but no answer. And I tried to call sale representative
instead today, and I was astounished to find that I cannot even cancel
my previous order now, as it was shipped -- So, that means that now I
need to bear the extra shipping cost if I want to return it, and
perhaps the risk of not getting full refund considering my experience
of price-guarantee.

My anger is: 1) Why Sony couldn't be reached timely when it comes to
price-guarantee, but can be reached timely if I want to place an
order? Is it the way Sony avoids their promise to their customers? I
thought Sony is known for good customer service, but I was definitely
wrong.
2) Why Sony treated their customers different? It seems that all it
depends on how lucky you are -- if you got a nice sale representative
who is willing to help, then your problem solved and you get your Free
Base Station. If you don't, then spend hours and hours trying to reach
Sony!!"

 

In my experience, if you need anything urgently done, online chat/e-mail is NEVER the way to go. And I honestly don't know why people seem to be having so much trouble reaching Sony by phone. I've called twice and not gotten on hold at all, so I don't know what the problem is. =\ Maybe their sales representatives are just busier? How long were you on-hold?

 

well, now I was not even put on hold. The automatic phone just told me that they experienced higher than usual volumn. So, ask me to call later. Tried a few times, it is EXACTLY the same message. And I just got fed up with their customer care (which is the one to talk to for price-guarantee). For Sale representative, I can get through within a few minutes at most. But they cannot help me, and just refer me to the customer care unit that can never be reached.

 

Wow, that's pretty weird. I'm sorry to hear about your experience! Heh. It's sort of like Comcast. Try to cancel the service and get put on hold for half an hour and redirected to a million different departments. Order new service and you can get through within seconds.

Anyway, it looks like a department-specific thing (the people taking care of orders seem to be overwhelmed?) - possibly coinciding with Black Friday/upcoming holidays? There's been a rash of complaints about them recently.

If it's any consolation, at least the laptop you ordered is a good one, and if you ever have technical difficulties with it, I've not had too much trouble contacting tech support and getting a repair done quickly on my laptop.

 

Yes, actually, I can quite understand. Considering the volumn of orders they got during past weeks, and (I think it is their fault) that they always give better offers the following weeks to attract more customers, their "customer care" department must be busy like hell. But well, I agree that the previous laptop is already very cheap, but just the feeling that other people got it even cheaper make me uncomfortable :-( Still thinking of whether I should keep mine, or just order a new one and returning the old one when I got it.....

 

I encounter similar situation as you. so bad
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=329174

Could you tell What phone # you call and what the email is?

Customer Relation #, 18884766972, that is the only one I could get through, but no help, and redirect me to call customer service,
customer service 18004477023, however, this one is never going through.

thanks,

 

yes, too bad.... at least from the specs, the sony vaio laptops sound very nice, and I thought before the Sony customer service is also very good. It seems that I might be wrong. Don't know whether it is only now that they are too busy, or their service is always like this...

 

Funny, I have been trying to get through to customer service too...for the past hour or so. Online chat kicked me off like every time(even when I waited pass the estimated time). And the phone line apparently doesn't work with Sony CS. People weren't joking about Sony's bad CS.

 

I called 4 times waited 30 minutes each time and hung up. What number are you calling???

 

What email address are you using??? The online email support link doesn't work.

 

Their customer service is extremely poor for my end too.

Before when I called them to cancel and order, it took them a few days to cancel it. I have to call back and back to confirm before they start building it and I'd have to pay it. I was on hold litterally for at least 45 minutes every single time.

Also, their chat support wasn't even functioning!

 

I never had to use sony's customer service yet. But I was happy they approved me for the free bundle offer from the sony business site, even though I didn't really have a business. I just put in my name for the company, so it matched my bill. Almost $400 of free stuff made my laptop purchase much better

I picked the Mobility bundle with another battery, laptop case, and a portable AC adapter with it's own little case.

They also have a bundle with a base station, portable AC adapter, and a mouse... But I figured having a spare battery was a better idea.

b2b.sony.com/Solutions/lpage.do?page=/vaio_smb/index.html&name=VAIO%20SMB

Incase anyone else wants to try. Just cost you a stamp, and your barcode

 

Thanks for your information!

whether this promotion is available for buying z540 from sonystyle.com?

 

I'm not too sure... it says it applies to Z SR and BZ series.

you also have to be sure to buy it from the listed approved dealers in order to claim the deal.

 

FYI - Sony customer care has been very backed up because of the overload of cancellations due to better deals after Black Friday. It is my understanding that they had a 4X increase in cancelled and replaced orders and they are still struggling to catch up.

 

I just call the rebate service, a gril said that I am eligible for the promotion.

here is the requirements about the promotion

I have some questions about the Four requiremts above.

1. I applied and used a sony card to make the payment for my z540 when placing the order. I have not repaid the money to sony card yet.
Whether I will not pay the sony card interest if the time of period after placing order is not over 30 days?

2. for the requirement of invioce, so far I only received TWO emails from Sonystyle: *Order confirmation* and * Order Update*, are they invioces? if not, where can I find the invioce?

3. for the product UPC bar code, I cannot find that like the sony sample of UPC bar code as follows:



I only can find this one from original box (black box) of my z540:





and two from the box that Wraps the original box mentioned above:




Those are all similar things I can find.
Which one is the UPC bar code that the promotion request?

Thanks

 

@ dawn777

looks like your first bar code is the one for the laptop, the 2nd is a fedex label, not sure what the 3rd is. I'd use the first one.

as to the other question, I am not too sure. I ordered mine from PC Mall, and I got an invoice in the package box, that I just photocopied and mailed in with the other paper work.

 

Luxferro, thanks

in order to get a invioce from sonystyle, whether I must make the repayment to sony card first, before get the invoice? since the price of my model is changed a lot, I currently deal with sony CS for price match, so I want to repay it within 30 days after placing my order.

who ever has the experence ordering a laptop from sonystyle.com? please give some info. or suggestions.

thanks in advance